Magnitude 3.7 earthquake jolts Afghanistan, fourth tremor reported in a month
&imwidth=600&imheight=450&format=webp&quality=medium "Magnitude 3.7 earthquake jolts Afghanistan, fourth tremor reported in a month")
Representive image Photograph: (Canva AI)
An earthquake of magnitude 3.7 struck Afghanistan early Friday, marking the fourth tremor in less than a month. The National Centre for Seismology reported the quake at a depth of 80 km, with no immediate reports of damage or casualties.
An earthquake of magnitude 3.7 struck Afghanistan at 6:09 a.m. IST on October 24 (Friday). According to the National Centre for Seismology (NCS), the epicentre was at latitude 36.38 N, longitude 71.14 E, and at a depth of 80 km. The earthquake did not report any significant damage.
The same zone experienced tremors of magnitude 4.3 on Tuesday on October 21, and magnitude 5.5 on Friday, October 17. This marks the fourth earthquake in less than a month.
At magnitude 3.7, the earthquake is fairly modest, unless the quake is extremely shallow or in a densely populated area. With 80 km deep the earthquake is somewhat deep, tends to cause less intense surface shaking compared to the 43 km depth of the 5.5 magnitude on October 17. This is because shallow earthquakes have less distance to travel to the surface, and can spread to larger areas. Afghanistan, Pakistan and the Northern part of India are placed at one of the most seismically active zones where the Indian and Eurasian tectonic plates meet. These repeated quakes felt in Afghanistan indicate ongoing seismic activity, eventhough it can't give a reliable prediction of high magnitude ones from the modest tremors.
